"I have seen plenty done in the name of God
that I'm sure God doesn't want anything to do with."
I just finished reading the book Velvet Elvis
and now I am disappointed.
I liked the book.
I liked how the author, Rob Bell,
calls for a new kind of Chrustuan faith
He calls for a new church
where people love and love and love
on this journey
and see that the destination of heaven
is only the kindergarten learning of Christ.
I like that he is a preacher
and one day he got up and just couldn't do it.
He couldn't preach anymore.
I like it even more that he told me this
and that he is preaching again
because God told him it was okay to feel this way.
And I like that many of his sentences
are just fragments
and his paragraphs
are just sentences
it mirrors his philosophy
that we don't have to be
and shouldn't even be
polished to shine for Christ.
I like all this.
But at the end,
I turned the page and was shocked
to find the book was over.
I had expected more.
many pages of footnotes and empty spaces fill the end of this book.
I wanted to just keep going - to keep reading.
In my head I had been having a conversation
and I feel like Mr. bell got up in the middle and walked out
and I am still sitting here
with my mouth open and questions falling out.
Why is the cover black and why is the person falling?
It doesn't look as if the person is falling for Christ
but instead falling into nothingness
I want the redmption moment on the cover
and not the failure.
He said, "It was on [a] trampoline that God started to make more sense."
and so maybe the girl on the cover is bouncing from a trampoline...
if so, the sky should still be bluer.
And I like the title.
But I wanted you to talk about it again
to remind me to keep Jesus out of my basement
like the paintings or renditions of the King
that end up sold on roadsides and then tossed away.
Remind me to keep Him Majestic
all the while personal -
filling the voids and valleys of Earth
and all the while still closely tucked into my pocket.
I wanted to say all this and to keep on thinking
so I was sad when suddenly
it ended.
